Russia on Monday threatened aircraft from the US-led coalition in Syrian-controlled airspace and suspended a hotline intended to avoid collisions in retaliation to the US military shooting down a Syrian warplane.
The US had downed the Syrian jet a day earlier after it dropped bombs near the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The downing of the warplane — the first time in the six-year conflict that the US has shot down a Syrian jet — came amid another first: Iran fired several ballistic missiles Sunday night at Islamic State positions in eastern Syria in what it said was a message to Saudi Arabia and the US.
The developments added to already-soaring regional tensions, and reflect the intensifying rivalry among the major players in Syria’s civil war.
Russia, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, called on the US military to provide a full accounting as to why it decided to shoot down the Syrian SU-22 bomber.
The US military confirmed that one of its F-18 Super Hornets shot down a Syrian jet that had dropped bombs near the US partner forces SDF. Those forces, which are aligned with the US in the campaign against the IS group, warned Syrian government troops to stop their attacks or face retaliation.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that as of Monday, all coalition jets and drones flying west of the Euphrates River will be tracked as potential targets.
Areas of northern Syria west of the Euphrates were controlled by IS before Syrian government forces captured most of them in recent months. The Russians, who have been providing air cover for Assad’s forces since 2015, appear to want to avoid further US targeting of Syrian warplanes or ground troops that have come under attack in eastern Syria recently.
This is the second time Russia has suspended a hotline intended to minimize incidents with the US in Syrian airspace. In April, Russia briefly suspended cooperation after the US military fired 59 missiles at a Syrian air base following a chemical weapons attack that Washington blamed on the Assad government.
General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Washington is working to re-establish communications aimed at avoiding mishaps involving US and Russian air operations in Syria. Speaking in Washington, the top US military officer said the two sides were in delicate discussions to lower tensions.
“The worst thing any of us could do right now is address this with hyperbole,” Dunford said.
Chairman of the Defense and Security committee of Russian parliament Viktor Ozerov described his Defense Ministry’s statement as a warning.
“I’m sure that because of this, neither the US nor anyone else will take any actions to threaten our aircraft,” he told the state-owned RIA Novosti news agency. “That’s why there’s no threat of direct confrontation between Russia and American aircraft.”
Ozerov insisted that Russia will be tracking the coalition’s jets, not shooting them down, but he added that “a threat for those jets may appear only if they take actions that pose a threat to Russian aircraft.”
Iran said the missile strike by its powerful Revolutionary Guard hit Syria’s eastern city of Deir el-Zour on Sunday night and was in retaliation for two attacks in Tehran earlier this month that killed 17 people and were claimed by IS.
It appeared to be Iran’s first missile attack abroad in over 15 years and its first in the Syrian conflict, in which it has provided crucial support to Assad. The muscle-flexing comes amid the worsening of a long-running feud between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
“The Saudis and Americans are especially receivers of this message,” General Ramazan Sharif of the Revolutionary Guard told Iranian state TV in an interview.
This has raised questions about how US President Donald Trump’s administration, which had previously put Iran “on notice” for its ballistic missile tests, will respond. Israel also is concerned about Iran’s missiles and has deployed a multilayered missile-defense system.
Clashes between Syrian troops and the SDF would escalate tensions and open a new front line in the many complex battlefields of the civil war, now in its seventh year.
SDF spokesperson Talal Sillo said the government wants to thwart the SDF offensive to capture Raqqa, adding that government forces began attacking the SDF on Saturday, using warplanes, artillery and tanks in areas that SDF had liberated from IS.
Sillo also warned that if “the regime continues in its offensive against our positions in Raqqa province, this will force us to retaliate with force.”
